Man, I hate classical guitar . I practice only 1 measure for hours for the whole week and yet can't nail it. My fingertips are sore and my mind is bored practicing one thing over and over. I should have robbed a bank or...or created a time machine to travel through time and space
Instead I practice alone in my room.

Man, I hate classical guitar . I practice only 1 measure for hours for the whole week and yet can't nail it. My fingertips are sore and my mind is bored practicing one thing over and over. I should have robbed a bank or...or created a time machine to travel through time and space
Instead I practice alone in my room.

Sigh, where's my music score? Deadline is next week

Hey Binh, don't get frustrated. I know what you are talking about and find that practicing 1 measure should be limited to ~15 min within 1 sitting. Next day (or part of the day) it'll get better.
Are you working on the Paganini piece?
BTW, practicing is more interesting than robbing a bank.

Violin is clearly ruled out for me as it takes way too much effort to get very little gain. Also, it is maximum 2 voices at the same time and the voice does not keep ringing when you start playing the next note... So, it is not that rich I'd say. To sound decent on a violin I think one should spend at least 5x of efforts needed to sound decent on a classical guitar. Then the sound itself: CG tone palette is so rich and can be so warm and pleasing. Violin has very good projection but the sound is too specific. Of course, it is fun to listen to professional players, but I still don't like it that much.
I remember that pure enjoyment listening to CG when I went to a concert with Eduardo Costa and was sitting in the 2nd row. In March 2017 David Russell visits our area and I cannot wait to listen to him . There is a huge difference between a professional and amateur player (remembering an open-mic event in our area).

How did I start it? No, not from hearing recordings of Segovia I was first exposed to a guitar (1/2 size steel string) when I was 6. My brother taught me some simple tune called Mazurka (see attached). I did not know sheet music back then, it was just "press here and then there".
When I got a bit older I started noodling around with this guitar, trying chords. Then at school I even did some rhythm playing on an electric guitar (a couple simple chords, only 1 right-hand pattern, nothing fancy). This was an optional class to my primary accordion course (which lasted 5 years). So, I learned how to read sheet music, got basic knowledge of music theory. But I never really liked accordion. When I was ~15 I was obsessed with getting a synthesizer (small electric piano producing different voices). My family was not very rich, so we could not afford one. But I was lucky to get one from a friend for a couple months. I played a lot of simple tunes from sheet music, from video games, even composed something myself.
Then I have not been playing much (some occasional chord playing when I was a student). I tried to learn piano, bought a midi keyboard, started doing some lessons, but my interest faded in a couple days somehow.
In ~2009 I somehow decided that it would be nice to start learning CG seriously, so I bought a classical guitar (some Almansa), downloaded a good tutorial which started from _fundamentals_ rather than playing tunes. I was a very enthusiastic start, but I rushed it too fast because I wanted to play some pieces I did some exercises too, but spent too much time on learning pieces which were beyond my skills. So, after a couple months I stopped practicing regularly. Also, I did not use nails.
Then in 2011 I moved to the US and started practicing again. I bought a Kremona Rosa Morena but some other things in life were more interesting/important then (like meeting my wife and then getting married).
So, only in 2013-2014 when things stabilized and I got a job of my dream I started consistent practicing and developed my deep interest in classical guitar.
I still consider a remote possibility to start learning piano, but I guess it will never be so captivating and addicting as Classical Guitar (which I never get tired of).

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Yay, I love story time . So you love music from childhood and had a chance to try many instruments: electric guitar, violin, keyboard and even accordion. I'm glad that classical guitar is your last choice, if not we wouldn't have chatted. By the way, just imagine you're playing accordion and dancing Cossack style makes me smile . How about your voice? are you a good singer?

When I was a child, I love classical music too. Our family had a cassette player and I used to listen to Paganini and Mozart's pieces, after listened one side I pushed eject button and played other side. Sometimes, the cassette player broke and its brown line stuck, I had to use a pencil to roll it back. It was fun back there. Good old times. I love violin sound and feel the melody, can't describe it but the music dances in my mind.

Does your family love music and support you? You said your brother played electric guitar, I guess he is the first person to inspire you. Meh my mother told me to stop practicing, so she could watch tv . I played something and asked my brother "Am I good?", you know, to get the attention, to feel good about myself when I can played a hard piece, mistakes free. I thought he would drop his jaw and told me " Binh, you are the most talented guitar player I have ever seen." I love when someone praises me.
And he answered "Meh, you play boring stuff, can you play some hot songs on tv?" Face palm. what a troll brother, I hate him sometimes

I was talking to a psychologist who said that hate is such a strong negative emotion that we would be better to say "I strongly dislike .....".
I replied "I really hate it when psychologists say things like that"

Yay, I love story time . So you love music from childhood and had a chance to try many instruments: electric guitar, violin, keyboard and even accordion. I'm glad that classical guitar is your last choice, if not we wouldn't have chatted. By the way, just imagine you're playing accordion and dancing Cossack style makes me smile . How about your voice? are you a good singer?

Actually, I did not try violin, it was just my speculation from others opinions (and common sense) that it is extremely hard.
Nah, just regular voice, never practiced after school. Of course, we had some singing lessons, but it was nothing special, just like accordion

When I was a child, I love classical music too. Our family had a cassette player and I used to listen to Paganini and Mozart's pieces, after listened one side I pushed eject button and played other side. Sometimes, the cassette player broke and its brown line stuck, I had to use a pencil to roll it back. It was fun back there. Good old times. I love violin sound and feel the melody, can't describe it but the music dances in my mind.

Oh, that's awesome! I did not hear much classical music in my childhood, but spent countless hours with my reel-to-reel tape player mostly being fascinated by the reel-to-reel concept/technology than music I mean it was funny to watch the reels spinning, collecting unwanted tapes from friends, cutting/gluing tape etc., recording music from vinyl, tv, video games. It was so super-geeky Then I did something similar to the cassette player. And started collecting cassettes since 5 I guess. Again, not for music, it was one of the best toys for me. I especially liked transparent cassettes.

Does your family love music and support you? You said your brother played electric guitar, I guess he is the first person to inspire you.

My brother completed 2 academic years of classical (?) guitar and gave up. We've got a half-side acoustic guitar, and it was converted into an electric (by adding some elements). But he never played a real electric.
I've got support from my parents to do home assignments for accordion, just like any parent would do But there has never been any serious push. I cannot say my family is very musical.

Meh my mother told me to stop practicing, so she could watch tv . I played something and asked my brother "Am I good?", you know, to get the attention, to feel good about myself when I can played a hard piece, mistakes free. I thought he would drop his jaw and told me " Binh, you are the most talented guitar player I have ever seen." I love when someone praises me.
And he answered "Meh, you play boring stuff, can you play some hot songs on tv?" Face palm. what a troll brother, I hate him sometimes

So, you've got a lot of background in guitar, right?
Sorry to hear that your mother did not really support you though...

P.S. Trying to post the message, it got rejected with error "Your message contains too many smilies. The maximum number of smilies allowed is 9."
WAT???

You have an interesting hobby, hehe.
There is a problem I want to share tho. When I recorded my guitar playing, I had to delete 20 if not 30 times to choose 1 okish video. At this rate how can I play in front audience.
How to play smoothly, mistake free, Andrei?

You have an interesting hobby, hehe.
There is a problem I want to share tho. When I recorded my guitar playing, I had to delete 20 if not 30 times to choose 1 okish video. At this rate how can I play in front audience.
How to play smoothly, mistake free, Andrei?

You have an interesting hobby, hehe.
There is a problem I want to share tho. When I recorded my guitar playing, I had to delete 20 if not 30 times to choose 1 okish video. At this rate how can I play in front audience.
How to play smoothly, mistake free, Andrei?

Mere 20-30? How about 50?
But actually, not I'm not doing that anymore: if nothing good comes out within ~20 min I try the next day.
As of audience, I find that warming up helps. I'm thinking about giving a small concert to my colleagues. Most already know I can play, but now I'm going to invite 4 people (probably even more will join), that's a bit bigger stress than playing to 1-2 listeners. Haha, I'm writing this and my hands already start shaking 2 principles to help me: 1. Good high-quality warm up. 2. The first piece is the easiest piece (like Lagrima). After the first 5 minutes it becomes way better and more under control.

A very rough Ghiribizzo with irregular tempo, many missing notes and damping. Please advise.

Hey Chu, I think this one is pretty good. Most difficult fragments are played well, damps are done right, tempo changes are done as supposed. The only small issue is buzzing on thumb damp, same problem as I have. But otherwise congrats on finishing this complicated piece!!